The use of wood products as exterior surface elements has caused occasional serious problems. Among these is the case of a major wood products manufacturer whose siding product was inadequately tested and, in practice, suffered from degradation due to fungal growth in the interstices of the wood fiber. The resultant replacement expense has exceeded one billion dollars.
As at least a partial result of this fiasco, builders and home purchasers alike have come to view wood composites and even laminates with a strong suspicion. As a result, the introduction of beneficial new products has been rendered far more difficult.
In addition to the problem of public perception, there is the actual physical problem of preventing degradation of exterior wood products due to the attack of the elements over a lengthy period of time. The full range of moisture, temperature variation and biological attack that will be mounted against an exterior piece may be difficult to fully predict and model in pre-distribution testing. Accordingly, it is desirable to guard as fully as possible against any prospective avenue of attack by the elements. One such avenue is the seam or seams of a laminated wood piece. For example, water droplets may gather on the bottom edge of a laminated siding piece and present a real or a perceptual danger of delamination. Adding to this problem is the fact that any sealant strip applied to prevent access by water to the seam must itself be adhered in such a manner as to resist attack by the elements over a lengthy period of time.
In a first separate aspect, the present invention is a method of applying a protective strip to an edge of a wood product piece. The process uses a set of aligned rollers and a belt apparatus that includes a pair of rollers having a shoe positioned between them and a belt fitted about the rollers and the shoe. The distance from the belt to the first set of aligned rollers is substantially equal to the width of the wood product piece. The wood product piece is placed between the first set of aligned rollers and the belt apparatus and resin is applied to the edge the wood product piece. The wood products piece is then squeezed between the first set of aligned rollers and the belt apparatus. At least a subset of the rollers are driven to move the wood products piece along the belt apparatus, thereby causing the resin to be squeezed into the edge of the wood products piece. Finally, the resin is cured.
In a second separate aspect, the present invention is a device adapted to apply a protective strip to an edge of a wood product piece. The device includes a set of aligned rollers and a belt apparatus, substantially parallel to the set of aligned rollers, and which in turn includes a pair of rollers having a shoe between them and a belt, mounted on the rollers about the shoe. The belt apparatus is spaced apart from the set of aligned rollers by substantially the width of the wood product piece. The device also includes a resin applying assembly adapted to apply resin to the edge and a resin curing assembly adapted to cure the resin after it has been applied to the edge.